


Under Our Skin

by DomLerrys



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gavin Reed Pulling His Head Out of His Ass, Insecure babies, Light Angst, M/M, Miscommunication, Panic Attacks, Quarantine, Swearing, because gavin reed, cabin fever, quareedtine, soft dumbasses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23285665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DomLerrys/pseuds/DomLerrys
Summary: Gavin hasn't left the house for almost a week, and things are not looking up. His cat is at the vet and the only contact he's had with any living being so far are his daily calls with Tina. He's about to pull his hair out, and he's positive that Nines taking up residence in his living room is not gonna make things better.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 20
Kudos: 161





	1. Day 6

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bakasara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakasara/gifts).



> Written for Octopunk Media's Michelle's #quaREEDtine.

There were a number of things Gavin was good at. He was good at darts, at charades, and at self-motivation. He was great at being stubborn, and at lateral thinking, and he had his good moments of brilliant intuition.

He was very good at thinking on his feet. He was good at getting things done, swiftly and properly. He was good at making decisions, and at acting accordingly. He was a man of action. 

And then there were things he wasn’t the best at. Baking, for example. And tennis. And keeping a level head, if he had to be honest. He was also terrible at being patient. He had no patience whatsoever. He had never been able to sit on his ass for longer than five minutes without becoming a frustrated mess.

So this shitty quarantine situation was, true to its nature, the shittiest thing to ever happen, ever. Gavin had been bottled up in his flat for what felt like a billion years but was actually, look at that, not even a week. Splendid. Also, Tripod was staying at the vet because, before all this virus madness, Gavin had been expecting the case he and Nines were working on to be one of those that kept him away from home for too long. He’d be damned before his baby would go starving, but now that meant he was truly alone within those four walls. He missed his asshole cat hopping around the flat on his three legs, meowling like crazy until he was comfortably asleep against his thigh, warm and soft under his hand.

Gavin stood up with a groan from his spot on the couch while debating whether to heat up some yesterday soup or some day-before-yesterday chicken. Ugh.

He was grabbing the soup from the fridge when the doorbell rang. The fuck? Tina was having the time of her life with her wife at their place, what with being finally home at the same time due to the quarantine, and Chris wouldn’t even go out for groceries because he wanted to keep his daughters as safe as possible. So that left...

Gavin opened the door and, lo and behold, there was his own personal terminator in all his 15-feet glory. He was holding three shopping bags in one of his hands and some work-related tablets in the other. Gavin idly wondered how he had rung the doorbell.

“Gavin,” Nines greeted him, making it sound very formal, somehow. “How are you?”

Gavin scoffed and moved so he could get in, not even dignifying that with a reply.

“I’ve brought some food and all the documents pertaining to the case that you can’t access remotely,” Nines went on. “We can work here while you can’t leave the house.”

Gavin busied himself with taking the documents from Nines. He grunted noncommittally in the direction of the kitchenette corner of the living room and heard Nines closing the front door dutifully and leaving the groceries in front of his fridge.

Gavin had just started reading the content list on the first tablet when Nines’ words hit him.

“We?? As in, you came here to stay?”

Nines was already taking off his jacket and arranging it neatly on the back of the chair closest to him.

“Of course, Gavin. You have nobody here, and I know you left Tripod at the vet. I know how restless you can get in the best circumstances, and these… are not the best circumstances. I’m here to keep you company while we work on the case.”

Gavin was aware that his eyes were the size of two saucers.

“Why would you want to stay here? You can go gallivanting in a half-empty city with all the other androids, why don’t you just do that?”

Nines stretched his mouth in his version of an indulgent smile.

“I think I’m more needed here. You don’t do well when you have nothing to do.”

“Says who?” Gavin bristled.

“Says four months of being partners,” Nines shot back smugly. With that, he returned to the kitchenette and started separating the perishables from the dry food. Yeah, prick, gloat all you want.

Gavin huffed. He knew when he had to concede. He went back to the microwave and punched in the time, huffing another couple of times for good measure. This wasn’t gonna be easy.

\---

As far as invading forces went, Nines was admittedly a considerate one. After his grand entrance, he quietly sat on the less-used side of the couch and took to reviewing work files. Gavin finished his soup and the fish sticks he later heated up on a whim, tidied up the kitchen, and returned to the dent he had moulded into his couch with years of loving care. He wrapped himself in a throw blanket and motioned for Nines to pass him a tablet. Nines passed him one without even stopping interfacing with whatever he was interfacing with, and they slipped in a tried and tested silence that Gavin had recently started to call companionable.

When Gavin could no longer keep himself from yawning every two minutes, he decided to call it a night. He wordlessly went to the bathroom and washed his teeth and face. The splash of cold water helped him clear his thoughts, but it did little for his nerves. Thinking that Nines was just in the other room felt strange. Not unpleasant, just a bit surreal. It wasn’t the first time that Nines had been inside his place, but he had never spent the night, and Gavin didn’t really want to prod the knot in his intestines that that thought caused. Fuck this shit. He flushed the toilet and washed his hands. Fuck this fucking shit, he was going to bed.

When he emerged from the bathroom, Nines lifted his eyes from the spread of documents on the coffee table.

Gavin felt his gaze fall on him, no doubt scanning him. Gavin was surprised to realise that he didn’t mind as much as he used to. Nines must have found whatever he was looking for, because a moment later his attention returned to his tablet.

“I assume you’re going to bed. Sleep well, Gavin.”

“Yeah. Yeah, whatever. Need anything?” Gavin wasn’t shuffling on his feet and he was very proud of himself. If Nines noticed anything, he didn’t let it on.

“I’m alright. I’ll be here in the morning.”

“Whatever,” Gavin cut short. He wanted to slap himself in the face.

He shuffled towards his bedroom and closed the door behind him. This was _not_ going to be easy.


	2. Day 7

Gavin was not an early riser by any stretch. At least not by preference. He liked to sleep in on his days off, and loved his lazy mornings. That morning, however, his insomnia didn’t agree with him and had him up at an ungodly hour. Still, he took his sweet time getting out of bed, and it definitely wasn’t because there was his partner in his fucking living room. He wasn’t avoiding and he wasn’t procrastinating. He was fortifying himself for a full twenty-four hours of snark.

Yeah, whatever.

When he peeked out of the bedroom, he found Nines in the exact same place he had left him the night before. Kind of creepy? As Gavin walked a couple of steps in the living room, Nines’ unnatural stillness melted away and he was back in the waking world.

“Good morning, Gavin. I hope you slept well.”

“Uhm, sure did. Normal sleep,” Gavin managed to mumble in his morning drowsiness. “Just going to the…”, he added, pointing to the bathroom. Nines looked amused.

“You do that. Do you eat anything in the morning?”

Gavin was inside the bathroom when he realised Nines had asked him something.

“Do I? Yeah,” he hollered to the bathroom door. “Yeah, sometimes I have pancakes and eggs…?”

He couldn’t hear if Nines replied at all, but he did hear the telltale sound of pans being moved. Then breakfast it was.

Nines kept messing about in the kitchen while Gavin did his morning yoga and his routine pushups and crunches and stuff. Gavin kept stealing glances at Nines’ back and the only thing he could think of was that his shirt was going to get ruined if he kept using it even at home. That led to an interesting series of thoughts about how Nines dressed at his own place, that was swiftly redirected to a safer train of thoughts about Nines’ place. What was it like? Did he have any furniture? Was it all greys and whites? He didn’t sleep, so there probably wasn’t a bed. So in the “bedroom” there was only a wardrobe? And what kind of clothes did Nines keep in that wardrobe? Maybe black turtlenecks and grey jeans, or maybe he was a sweatpants kind of guy? An image of Nines wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants came up in his mind, and Gavin was sure he’d appreciate the real thing as well–

“Gavin, don’t overexert yourself. The health system is under strain, I’m not sure they could come to your aid, should you harm yourself.”

Gavin tried to hide the fact that he had almost been caught ogling his partner’s ass and thanked his lucky stars that Nines was plating up the eggs and couldn’t see him.

“I didn’t know how you usually have them, so I made them both scrambled and sunny side up.”

“What an insufferable show-off,” Gavin said, with no bite. The eggs were delicious.

“I can help you with your physical exercise, you know? I understand you are used to the gym at the precinct, so being home-bound isn’t ideal for you. I can help you integrate the basic and unimaginative exercises you did this morning with something to complete your workout. Also, I can physically help you by keeping your feet on the ground or sustaining your back manually, in the absence of machines–”

“NO! Absolutely not,” Gavin was quick to interrupt Nines’ rambling. He made a face. Having Nines’ hands on him was not going to lead anywhere nice for all the parties involved, so better avoid any contact.

Good thinking, Reed.

Nines was staring at him with his mouth slightly agape and a look in his eyes that might have been dejection. Or maybe Gavin was reading into things, but he had no time to investigate further: in a flash, it was gone.

“Of course,” Nines said in a neutral tone. He rose from his seat at the kitchen table and went to sit as ramrod-straight as always on the plushy couch.

Yeah, no. Nines probably just thought he was being a fucking weirdo. Human and all that.

Gavin shoved the rest of his breakfast into his mouth unceremoniously and went to his spot on the couch. Nines was already working, his LED spinning yellow in concentration. Gavin grabbed his personal pad and the tablet he was working on the previous night, and kept comparing his notes with the data Nines had pulled from the public automobile register two weeks before.

\---

When 4pm rolled around, Gavin stretched free of his plaid cocoon of warmth and grabbed his phone. Nines watched with interest as Gavin gleefully hit a few buttons and smiled brightly as Officer Chen’s voice filled the silence. Gavin motioned for Nines to greet her.

“Hello, Officer Chen. How are you and your wife?” Nines inquired.

“Nines! What are you doing there? You keeping the Detroit’s finest from going crazy? Don’t let him fool you, Nines, that boy does need the compa–”

“Yeah, yeah, lovely talk, Tina,” Gavin interrupted her. The red tips of his ears were endearing. “Nines now gotta keep on working our case, dontcha Nines?”

Gavin switched off the speaker on his phone to continue his call with Officer Chen. They talked about the most inane things, and Chris’ daughters, and work gossip, and they updated each other on how people Nines had never heard of before where doing. After 1:12:48.6 since the beginning of the call, though, Gavin’s voice lost its playfulness.

“Ah, you gotta go? Yeah, sure, of course. No no, sure, you go help her. Yeah, sure, talk to you tomorrow. Stay safe.”

Gavin ended the call and sat down on the couch with a sullen frown. Nines couldn’t help but start a scan of his vitals.

“These calls are always so short,” he muttered, apparently talking to nobody. Or maybe he was talking to Nines, he couldn’t be sure. “Fuck this stupid quarantine.”

Nines refrained from reminding Gavin how important the quarantine was. Gavin wasn’t in the most at-risk age bracket, as he was 36 years and 5 months old and, statistically, the virus hit the worst people over 50 years of age. Nonetheless, he wasn’t 20 either, so his immune defence system wasn’t in its prime anymore. According to Nines’ scans, Gavin was in good health, but that could change rather quickly if he decided to ignore the quarantine issued by the government. He was fairly certain Gavin understood that and only needed to vent his frustration towards the forced isolation.

“Can’t you call Chris as well?” Nines asked.

“Nah, can’t do that. He’s with his family, I can’t take him away from his kids. It’s okay.”

It was clearly not okay, painfully so, but Nines refrained from speaking up this time as well. He was quite confident Gavin wouldn’t take his correction too well.

Gavin’s voice called him back from his thoughts.

“You have a place of your own, right?” he asked Nines in a very random non sequitur. Humans could truly be hard to follow.

Nines decided to humour him.

“Yes, I do. Connor helped me find it soon after I was transferred to the DPD and designated as your partner. Its distance from the precinct and your place is ideal, and it has everything I need.”

“Yeah? And what is that? You got a dog like your big bro?”

“No. I’d rather avoid having to look after another life than my own,” Nines said, wondering at the same time how that would work for him. He thought he would prefer a cat, anyways, or a parrot. “Books. I find them fascinating. I can’t interface with them, so I have to read them analogically. It’s a pleasurable experience. I had to learn how to do that instead of scanning the whole page. Hank was right, it’s much more interesting that way.”

“Yeah? What kind?”

“I’m partial to historical novels and biographies. I like seeing how a full life unfolds and how seemingly inconsequential occurrences can snowball into being life-changing events. Do you read, Gavin?”

“Sometimes. Fantasy and sci-fi, mostly, shit like that. I also used to read a shitton of fanfiction, when I had more time. I can recommend some, if the system hasn’t eaten my bookmarks. I remember reading one in which the characters kept reincarnating and meeting again and again in different eras. Saddest thing I've ever read. Bawled my eyes out at the end.”

“Yes, I would love to read it,” Nines said, truthfully.

“Then we’ll need to watch the movie first. Gotta make you fangirl over the characters, gotta make you ship them. Movie’s kinda old, but I’m sure your fancy internet-brain can find it – it’s called _Inception_. Hundred per cent, you’ll like it. And of course you’ll like Arthur, he’s like you.”

“An android?”

“A badass!”

Nines smiled covertly while Gavin launched himself in a passionate explanation on why that movie in particular was one of the best pieces of cinematographic art ever made, _even if there are, like, two women in the whole cast? Not cool._ Nines made a point of not looking it up so that he could enjoy it when they would watch it together like Gavin had promised they would. He added it to the list of Gavin’s favourites in one of the many subfolders he had created for him.

Eventually, Gavin stopped talking and dedicated his attention to a video game. He was so taken by the narrative that Nines had to remind him to eat. He had made a balanced meal for Gavin while he was engrossed in the game. Gavin looked grateful, according to Nines’ assessment.

Soon after they were done with the tidying up, Gavin gestured towards the bathroom and left to get ready for the night. Nines was left alone on the couch next to the Gavin-shaped depression. It was still warm from Gavin sitting there. Nines reconstructed how Gavin had been sat there, loose-limbed and relaxed, or leaning towards the televisor in a futile effort to perform better in the video game. A phantom ache spread in his core, one his internal sensors couldn’t analyse but still very much there. It was a new variant of another ache he knew all too well by then. He ran his fingers on the rapidly cooling spot on the couch next to him, and his fingertips picked up all the data they could. He wanted to feel that kind of warmth under his fingers again.

Gavin returned to the living room and pulled him out of his musings.

“I assume you’re going to bed, now,” Nines said, just like the night before. “Sleep well.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Gavin’s tone was a bit tense, but maybe he was just tired. “Need anything?”

“I’m alright. I’ll be here in the morning.”

“Good,” Gavin said, looking at anything but him, and even more uncomfortable than when he had pulled away from him the night before.

Without another word, Gavin turned around and went to his room, and Nines felt something small and fragile inside him break. Unable to pinpoint what exactly had happened and suddenly tired in a way he couldn’t explain, he settled on running a last check of his own systems and slipping into stasis.


	3. Day 8

Gavin woke up about twenty minutes before the alarm, well-rested and in a good spirit. It had been centuries since he had woken up feeling like this.

A quick look confirmed Nines was still in stand-by in his spot on the couch. Maybe, at the end of this thing, there would be a Nines-shaped dent, too. Squashing that thought as soon as it popped up, Gavin made quick work of throwing on some clothes and went to the bathroom.

When he finally went to the living room for his morning yoga and his lame pushups and crunches, Nines was up and running. Gavin got a waft of the nice smell of pancakes and frittata and his mouth watered at the thought of a good breakfast. Nines had made him breakfast twice and he was ruined for everybody else already. Excellent. Full speed ahead, Reed, you sad son of a bitch.

“Good morning, Gavin. I hope you slept well.”

“I actually did,” Gavin said, and he couldn’t keep the awe out of his voice.

“Not a normal occurrence?” Nines asked, the barest hint of worry lacing his words.

“‘Fraid not. One of the perks of having a job in the force, I guess.”

Nines stole a glance at him over his shoulder, the clattering of plates loud and clear in the quiet hours of the morning. Gavin looked at Nines’ back and at his black shirt, and thought about what he was thinking the day before about Nines’ place (and his clothes).

“You sure you wanna keep using your work clothes?” Gavin blurted out.

Nines took another peek over his shoulder.

“I don’t have a change of clothes with me. I suppose these will do.”

“Naaah tin can, I got you covered. I still have some old clothes from the Academy, should be okay-ish. I’ll go take them out, I’ll leave them for you on the dresser.

By the time Gavin had returned to the kitchen, his breakfast was ready, and it looked scrumptious.

“I interpolated the frittatas in the stack of pancakes,” Nines said, with just a drop of pride, probably at having thought up that thing himself. Oh, his creative nerdy terminator. Gavin couldn’t believe a pancake-frittata combo stack was what finally made him admit to himself he was head over heels for this strange ginormous kid, but apparently that was how ridiculous his life had become, and he could just take it in a stride.

A bit overwhelmed by this realisation, he almost allowed himself to pat Nines on the shoulder in thanks for the breakfast. ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! Gavin jerked his hand away. He knew better than to trust himself with that. Knew if he started touching Nines casually like that, he wouldn’t want to stop at that. And there was no way he was going to burden his friend with the knowledge that the gayest, saddest sack of shit on planet Earth had the hots for him. He could fry Nines’ processors, or lose him entirely. And Gavin was not ready to lose one of the few good things in his life, and also the best partner he’d ever had.

Afraid of having been caught, Gavin tried his damnedest to think up a topic to divert Nines’ attention.

“So you said you got stuff at your place, yeah? Surely not only books...?”

Weak topic, Reed. You already talked about that.

Nines, however, didn’t agree with Gavin’s inner voice. He beamed at him - which for Nines meant the corners of his mouth shot slightly upwards. He got up from his chair, clearly headed for Gavin’s room, presumably to change into Gavin’s clothes. No, that was a cursed thought. Begone, thot!

“Of course it’s not only books,” Nines replied, not even trying to keep the smugness out of his voice. “I’ve also got art supplies.”

With that, Nines disappeared into his room, and with him all the saliva in Gavin’s mouth.

Nines reemerged after what could have been hours as well as mere seconds later. He was wearing an ancient-looking DPD Academy hoodie that fit him well enough and blue sweatpants that were at least four inches too short and that Nines managed to make look like high fashion anyways. Fuck his perfect body and his perfect posture. Gavin’s whole person hitched to drape itself over that concentrate of cleverness and wit wrapped in soft cotton.

When Gavin’s last surviving brain cell went back online, Nines’ last sentence finally sank in.

“You paint?”

“I try.” Nines clearly had no interest in hiding his enthusiasm, and he went on explaining. “Copying is, of course, a very easy undertaking for me, even if my software in that area isn’t nearly as advanced as Connor’s. The hard part is developing my own style. I think I’m doing fairly well in that aspect, as two people already were able to tell my works apart from those of other artists.”

“Were those two people the Andersons, by any chance?” Gavin asked, trying to hold back a laugh when Nines looked at him with an exasperated glare.

“Of course it was Connor and Hank, who else would I ask?”

Nines was the most adorable living being that walked this rock hurtling through space. Gavin wanted to hug him and never let go.

“It’s okay, Nines, no need to get your panties in a twist.”

“I don’t wear any panties.”

Hell no, that’s too easy. Not today, heart attack.

Reed, be strong.

“No, you manchild, I mean that it’s alright if it was them. I'd love to see your art as well, when all this shitstorm is well and done.”

“I could show you now! I’ve got photos of them all in my storage in the cloud…”

“Thank you, Nines, but no. Nothing’s like the real thing, no? I just gotta have some patience. It will be something to look forward to.”

Nines couldn’t help but smile and Gavin wanted to steal that smile and keep it forever.

“Okay, something to look forward to.”

\---

As soon as the clock struck 4pm, Gavin called Tina like he had done the day before. Nines dutifully said hi to her and even got to say hi to her wife Vivienne, who he had never met in person but who sounded real nice over the phone. Tina and Gavin exchanged their usual banter, and Gavin managed to recommend a tv series with a lead actress that he believed would _float Tina’s boat_ (“Dude, I’m a married woman!” “Oh trust me, she’s up Vivienne’s alley as well” “You heard that, Vivi? Let’s watch the attractive people together!”). Nines hummed, amused by the humans' antics.

“Alright, Gav,” Tina gently interrupted him. “Sorry about this, but today Imma have to cut our time short. Vivi and I have a call with her parents in five.”

Gavin’s face fell.

“Oh? Alright, no prob. You guys have a nice chat, okay? I got work to do anyway.”

After that, it was a matter of some quick goodbyes and the promise to hear each other the following day. Gavin closed the call and let himself fall heavily on his side of the couch. Nines sat awkwardly on his own side, not really sure of what he could say to alleviate Gavin’s discontent. It was one of those moments in which he felt acutely envious of Connor’s way more advanced social module. He would surely know what to do in a situation like this. Nines had seen some of the things Connor had lived before Nines was activated: Connor had practically saved Hank from the direr consequences of pathological depression and was actively helping him piece his life together even now. Surely some loneliness was something his brother would know how to help someone through.

Gavin’s dragged sigh drew Nines’ attention back to the present.

“Alright, Nines. Let’s get some work done,” Gavin said, while grabbing the documents he had been working on from the coffee table. He passed Nines the ones he needed, and they fell silent while they poured over the case files.

Their work session didn’t last long: Gavin was obviously having a hard time concentrating. He kept looking to the side with a lost look and then forcing his attention back to his tablet. He hadn’t scrolled down the document he was reading in the last 00:14:32.7 minutes and it wasn’t looking like he was about to get anything done in the next fourteen minutes as well.

The sigh that escaped Gavin’s lips this time had a more definite frustrated nuance. Nines catalogued it for future reference. He watched as Gavin let his own tablet fall in the folds of the throw blanket bunched up between them on the couch.

“This quarantine is killing me,” Gavin whined, dragging his hands down his face.

Nines waited for him to keep talking, but Gavin stayed silent.

“Do you want to play some video games, maybe?” Nines tried to suggest.

Gavin shook his head.

“Nah, I don’t really feel like it.”

Gavin seemed to think for a second, and then he turned his head to look at Nines. His cheeks were stained red.

“Look, Nines, would you mind drawing something while I watch you?” Gavin’s blush spread to his ears, too. Nines felt the startlingly strong impulse to pinch the shells of Gavin’s ears to find out if they were hot as well. He decided to put the man out of his misery, instead.

“Of course, Gavin. What would you want me to draw?”

Gavin visibly relaxed.

“Dunno, man, whatever you want. Or… you’ve met Tripod, right? Would you draw him? I miss the little hopping bastard.”

Nines thought fondly about the temperamental ball of fur. He saw him only once, but it was easy to extrapolate a still to work on from his own memories. Tripod was looking up expectantly at Gavin, waiting for his human to give him food. He had pestered him from the very moment they had arrived at Gavin’s home, wailing insistently until Gavin had relented and taken out the bag of wet food. Nines cherished that memory. It was the first time he had seen Gavin treat another living being with open affection. He remembered wishing to be on the receiving end of that kind of fondness. It was also probably the first time he had felt any kind of positive emotion towards his partner. Something fluttered in his core, and his internal scans were quick to calibrate his components to adjust.

Nines nodded and put away his tablet on the coffee table. Gavin scurried off to find some paper and a pencil for him, while Nines sat at the dining table, the best choice for the intended activity. Gavin came back, placed the materials in front of Nines, and sat down opposite him.

Nines took a couple of minutes to figure out how he wanted to portray the cat, and got to work. He blocked the space on the piece of paper with a few efficient lines while Gavin craned his neck to see better. It was like dealing with a curious cat that didn’t really understand that Nines needed space to draw. Maybe Gavin and Tripod weren’t all that different.

Finally fed up with all his stretching and twisting, Gavin stood up from his chair and circled the table to lean over Nines' back.

Nines had never experienced a total forced shutdown of his systems, but in that moment he believed he was about to drop unconscious on the floor. He could feel Gavin’s heat on his back, Gavin’s breath on his neck. Gavin’s warmth was more intoxicating than the first rush of energy upon assumption of thirium. Nines kept on drawing, but his attention was anywhere but on the sheet of paper in front of him. He felt his body lean back towards Gavin like an inevitability. In a heady moment, he wondered if this unstoppable motion had a formula and universal values like the gravitational constant. G equals six point sixty-seven times ten to the negative eleven…

The hair on the top Nines’ head brushed against what he believed was Gavin’s chin, or maybe his cheek. A second later, the warmth was gone.

Nines turned around immediately, and he was stricken by how horrified Gavin’s expression was. Gavin’s hands were up in a defensive gesture as he stumbled two other steps away from him. Gavin’s eyes shot panicked towards the corridor and then back to Nines, his features distorted in a grimace Nines wasn’t able to parse. It looked like Gavin was trying to say something, judging by the jerky quivering of his mouth, but no words came out. Instead, Gavin shut his mouth so tight that the muscles of his jaws jumped, straightened his back and squared his shoulders, and stalked off to his room.

\---

Nines stayed at the table for a long time, confused as to what had happened - a sensation that in the last few days he had become increasingly familiar with. He had noticed Gavin retreating at times the days before, but something in Gavin’s eyes tonight when he had pulled back had him feel like his thirium pump had been ripped out of his chest. His HUD lit up with the obvious solution to his analysis of Gavin’s behaviour. Was he really so repulsive that Gavin couldn’t stand his touch? He was aware of his partner’s past, but he thought, perhaps foolishly, that those days were gone. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Maybe it was a matter of uncanny valley. Gavin had been able to get his head around the idea of working with an android, but couldn’t get past his disgust over their artificial body. Maybe the mere thought of being physically in contact with one of Nines’ species was something that upset Gavin so deeply that they would never be able to become actual friends.

Except... Gavin could have normal relations with the androids at work. Nines had seen it. But it didn’t surprise him that much: all but Connor had removed their LED. That must make it easy for Gavin to forget that under their skin they were made of plastic. Any sign that they were androids had been removed - something that Nines was not willing to do. Regardless, his lack of an advanced social module would always make his nature glaringly obvious. Nines was starting to realise that Gavin’s problem might no longer be with androids in general, just with those who would present as such.

That thought was so unsettling that Nines had to manually close the line of enquiry and dedicate all his attention to something else, as much as his processors would allow. Falling back on his routines, he chose to prepare something complex for dinner and, as he chopped the vegetables, he launched a massive file transfer that he had postponed since that morning.

When Gavin came out from his room, about an hour later, he sat at the table and he silently ate his food after muttering a thank you. Nines sat on the other side of the table, forcing his expression to remain neutral.

After dinner and the extra care with which Gavin avoided even brushing his fingers when he passed over the dishes to Nines and took them back to dry them in a towel, Gavin went back to the couch and played some games on his phone. At a loss for what to do with more and more proof that Gavin did have a problem with even so much as brushing against him, Nines retrieved pencil and paper and sat back at the table. It was only when he looked down again at the 00:06:54.1 mark that he realised he had copied the same coffee pot five times.

Two hours later, Gavin went to the bathroom to get ready for the night. When he came out, he made to go directly to his room without even looking at Nines’ way.

“I assume you’re going to bed,” Nines called quietly after him, standing up from the chair. Gavin stopped right before entering his room. “Sleep well. I’ll be here in the morning,” Nines tried, but he sounded clipped even to his own ears.

Gavin grunted an inarticulate sound without showing any signs of having noticed Nines’ inner turmoil, he went inside his room and shut the door.

Even if Nines’ body didn’t budge an inch, he felt like all energy had fled his limbs and core at once. Why was it so imperative that he touched Gavin? What in his processes told him that it was such a necessary thing? Sure, he had been in love with Gavin for some time, now, but the desire to touch him was new. If he could isolate the cause, he could also eliminate it and stop it from ruining his relationship with his partner. Nines could deal with unrequited emotions, but not with a malfunctioning body that behaved on its own will.

Like all creatures, Nines learnt by imitation. Non-clinical touch was not something innate to him. Was this something like the mirroring system in birds, primates and humans? But, if so, whose behaviour was Nines mirroring? Not Gavin’s, that’s for sure, as he had made it quite clear that he wanted to be as far as possible from Nines.

That line of thought was painful and confusing, so Nines forced himself to stop pursuing it. He didn’t have enough computable data to really get anywhere, so there was no point in hurting himself by attempting to solve unsolvable riddles.

Nines quickly ran a last routine check of his own systems and slipped into blessed, thoughtless stasis.


	4. Day 9

Gavin woke up cranky as hell. There goes the restful sleep of the night before. Of course it wouldn’t last. Story of his life. Fuck.

He rose from the bed with a groan, the facts from the previous day painfully etched in his mind.

He had thought about it for hours before falling in a fitful sleep. Why had Gavin reacted so rashly? Why is he so damn stupid and inconsiderate? Probably Nines had just noticed how touch-starved he was and had tried to comfort him. But of course his stupid in-love-with-his-partner self couldn’t chill for a fucking second and he had to panic, fucking hell, and now Nines had probably got it all wrong and Gavin had ruined their relationship forever. Because Gavin knew he was trash, and Nines was too good for him, even just as a partner. FUCKING! SHITTY! HELL!

When he got to the living room, Nines was already hard at work on his breakfast. He was making blueberry pancakes. Probably they were out of eggs.

Why did Nines insist on making Gavin’s food, even when he had treated him like he did last night? Was there a built-in masochism subroutine in his programming? Did they make him with his wires crossed?

Gavin looked at Nines’ shoulders stretching the fabric of Gavin’s hoodie. Something painful and wistful clenched Gavin’s insides in a vice. He felt like throwing up.

Nines must have heard him, but he didn’t say anything nor did he regard him in any way. Gavin began his simple yoga routine, but he felt unstable even in mountain pose. He fell two times out of warrior. He was a mess. He could taste the bile in his throat when he reached triangle pose.

He gave up on his stupid pushups and crunches. His head was spinning. He sat at the dining table more out of automatism than anything else.

“Good morning, Gavin,” Nines said as he placed a plate of pancakes and a cup of black coffee in front of Gavin. Nines’ voice was so small that Gavin felt even sicker than before. “I hope you slept well.”

Gavin felt tears rising in his eyes, but kept his head down and tried to force a gulp of coffee down his throat. It tasted all kinds of wrong.

“Not hungry,” Gavin said, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.

“Are you feeling ill? Do you have a fever? Do I need to call a doctor?”

Nines was all over Gavin in a matter of seconds. He didn’t touch him, though, not even to check his temp, hovering over him like some kind of sparrow blocking the light coming in from the windows. Holy shit, Gavin had really fucked up.

“No, don’t worry, I’m okay. Just gonna lie down on the couch, read a book.”

Gavin took the first well-worn book his hands fell on from the shelves next to the tv and went to the couch. The seating sagged under his shoulder, worn down by years of use. There wasn’t a Nines-shaped dent under his feet. He felt like crying all over again.

Eventually, Gavin calmed down a little, but he still couldn’t concentrate on the book. He had to reread the same page five times, and he was nowhere near to understanding what he was reading. A bird was chirping just out of the window. Gavin put down his book to go to the window and watch it from up closer, but it flew away. So he went back to the Nines-less couch and kept failing to read the novel.

Maybe five minutes later he put down the book again and opened a game on his phone. Not interesting. He went back to reading, but his neck hurt from the uncomfortable position. He went to his room and took his pillow. He lay down again on the couch, stuffing the pillow under his head. Better. Now, where was he with the book? He peeked at Nines from behind the book and caught Nines staring at him, concerned. Nines quickly diverted his eyes, back to pretending to draw. So much for “military-grade stealth”. Gavin smiled a little, and another painful pang blossomed in his chest.

Gavin was uncomfortable again. He put down the book one last time, finally defeated, took away his pillow from behind his head and squeezed it close to him. Nines was looking at him again from the table, openly this time. Gavin jutted out his chin, daring him to say something, and rolled on the other side. After that, he was fast asleep.

\---

Gavin was going crazy. Today he _really_ needed some chatting time with Tina. However, at about 3:30pm, he got a message from her saying that she couldn’t make it during the afternoon, and that she’d try to be free later that night. Fucking peachy. The day just couldn’t get any better.

He needed to burn off some of his restlessness. He got on the ground and he vehemently started to pump out series after series of crunches, pushups, burpees, lunges, squats, jumps. Anything that made his blood flow faster and made him feel alive. He couldn’t breathe. The walls kept closing in on him. … eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Burpees again. One, two–

Nines approached him warily.

“Gavin, please, slow down. You can’t risk injuring yourself. The health system––”

“Oh, he speaks!”

“Excuse me?”

“The fuck do you want, eh, tin can?” Gavin lashed out, sweat spraying everywhere when he turned to look Nines in the eye. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something, here? Of course you wouldn’t understand what cabin fever is. Leave me alone!”

Nines seemed to become smaller with every word Gavin said.

“Gavin, tell me what you need–”

“What I need is to see a fucking human, just one, to touch someone and remember that I’m alive, that I’m real!”

“Gavin, I think you need to stop–”

“Stop? STOP??? How the fuck am I supposed to stop? _You_ need to stop! This fucking _quarantine_ needs to stop! What the hell. I’m outta here.”

Gavin was seeing red. He just wanted to go out, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe, goddammit. He felt like his lungs were collapsing. He needed more air.

He made for the front door.

Nines shouted something behind him and Gavin felt Nines’ hands closing on his shoulders. Gavin thrashed around, trying to free himself. Nines apparently wasn’t using much force, because Gavin managed to get away from him and turn around to face him.

“Get your hands off me, you plastic piece of shit! Don’t you ever touch me! Ever! I don’t want you to touch me!”

Nines’ hands fell limp along his sides. His eyes were wide open, his mouth slack. He moved one, two, three steps back.

Gavin was perfectly still, back to the present. As lucid as possible, given the circumstances. He began trembling violently. What had he just done?

“Oh,” Nines said. “My skin. You want the ‘real thing’. Right.”

Nines’ face was like marble. The skin around his eyes retracted, then on his cheeks, then on his mouth. His hair disappeared, the chassis showing on his neck too. He took off Gavin’s hoodie with white nimble fingers. At the centre of his torso, his thirium pump port faintly glowed blue. He took off his socks and Gavin’s sweatpants as well. All his synthetic skin was gone.

“There you go, Gavin. Lest you forget what you’re dealing with.”

Nines turned around and walked purposefully towards Gavin’s bedroom.

“No no no NO NO NO NO! Nines, please, wait––”

Gavin followed him, but he was too late to reach him. The sound of the door slamming shut echoed against Gavin’s eardrums. It sounded final. Gavin shuffled blindly back to the couch and slumped into his spot. He cried.

\---

Gavin’s room was dark, the curtains drawn shut. Nines didn’t know how much time had passed. He could know, of course, but he didn’t care. He felt empty, lost in his fragmented thoughts.

A light knock brought him out of his reverie.

The door opened a little. The light from outside bounced off his still exposed chassis. Gavin was on the threshold, looking small, his eyes red and puffy. A secondary alarm popped up on Nines’ HUD, but he didn’t need to check Gavin’s temperature. He wasn’t ill. Gavin sniffed.

“May I. Uhm…” Gavin gestured at the bed. Nines didn’t answer.

Gavin fully entered the room and stood just inside the door, waiting for Nines to make him go away. When that didn’t happen, he approached cautiously, as one would do with a spooked animal. He sat down on the bed next to Nines. Nines kept looking ahead of him, his teeth clenched so tight he could feel the fake enamel grinding. He felt the bed dip more as Gavin got closer to him.

Some minutes passed. Nines looked at the door ahead. Gavin kept his head low.

A light touch on his knee joint startled Nines.

He looked down, where Gavin’s hand was warm on his leg. He looked up at Gavin’s face in disbelief, then down again. Gavin’s hand was slightly trembling, but very purposefully spread open on his exposed chassis.

Nines wanted to say something, but when his mouth opened, only a whirring sound came out. Nines winced.

Gavin suddenly got even closer and looked at Nines square in the face. He was wearing a pained but determined expression, almost challenging. He was so close that his eyes were slightly crossed. Then, without forewarning, Gavin turned his head and leant it on Nines’ shoulder.

Nines felt Gavin’s hair against his cheek, Gavin’s cheek against his shoulder. The moment was surreal. He wondered for a bewildered second if this is what androids experience when they shut down permanently.

“My chassis…” Nines forced out, but his voice faded away. There was so much static in his voice that he wasn’t sure Gavin could understand him even if he managed to talk.

Gavin didn’t move. Nines tried again.

“I thought. I thought you hated me. I thought you were disgusted by my species. I thought you hated me for being an android.”

Gavin’s voice was so low Nines could barely hear him.

“I couldn’t care less.”

Nines still wasn’t entirely sure this wasn’t some kind of fatal malfunction in his software.

Gavin went on.

“I just… I just need some kind of physical contact with a person.”

Nines deflated a little. Well, you can’t win them all.

“Right.”

He began to stand up. He couldn’t be there anymore while his wild hopes were being crushed. Gavin was just touch-starved. Nines could understand. Maybe he was a little touch-starved himself. But, for Gavin, that was it. It was just a primordial human need, it didn’t really make a difference who satisfied it. Nines just happened to be there. It was okay.

Gavin’s hand shot out to stop him from standing up, and he manoeuvred Nines so they were almost facing each other. Gavin’s face was hidden by the low angle at which he was keeping his head.

Gavin’s hands encircled Nines and Gavin angled his whole body forward. He buried his face in the crook of Nines’ neck. Gavin’s eyes were damp against his chassis. Nines couldn’t move, his motor programs unresponsive.

“No,” Gavin said, his voice muffled and wet, “I need physical contact with a person in particular.”

Gavin went quiet after that, and it occurred to Nines that he might have failed to take into account Gavin’s poor communication skills during this whole quarantine fiasco.

“Then why did you keep pushing me away?”

“Fuck, I was just being an idiot,” Gavin said, his voice getting smaller and more defeated. “Just bracing myself for rejection.”

Nines couldn’t believe his ears. He was the person. He was _the_ person.

His arms wrapped around Gavin’s still trembling body and he felt some liquid fall down his own eyes as well. Gavin went stiff for a moment before finally relaxing in his embrace, letting all the tension melt away from him and moulding himself against Nines’ still bare body. Soon they were both sobbing and laughing hysterically in each other’s arms.

They were going to be fine.

\---

After they calmed down enough to stand up, they went back to the living room. Nines looked at the discarded clothes on the floor and put them back on. Gavin never went further away than a couple of steps.

Gavin’s stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten anything all day. Nines decided that was inexcusably irresponsible of him.

Nines went to the kitchen and heated up the blueberry pancakes from earlier that day in the microwave. When he brought the plate to Gavin, who was already sat at the table, Gavin took his hand and tugged him until he needed to grab a chair to sit next to him. Gavin went to town on the pancakes. He never let Nines’ hand go.

Realising he was still in his bare chassis, Nines accessed his external features routines and willed skin and hairs to reform atop his structure. Gavin noticed what he was doing and looked at him with lovestruck eyes. Nines felt giddy under such a glance from Gavin.

Before Nines could complete the process, Gavin spoke up.

“Nines, wait. You’re more sensitive without your skin on, right?”

“That’s right. Especially in the areas dedicated to fine-grained analysis, like the hands.”

Gavin’s face and ears flushed red, and his smile widened.

“Then maybe don’t wear your skin on your hands?” Gavin looked at their interlaced fingers. “For now.”

Nines smiled in return and squeezed Gavin’s hand. He left his own hand bare. Gavin hummed contentedly and went back to his pancakes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my sister for being the most patient and insightful beta ever.


End file.
